Stories of places and things I found to be delicious and even wonderful
Bill Fenner, Matthias, Thomas, and I took a 40 minute taxi ride to Small Dinner Club in the center of the old part of Bangkok. The place was counter seating for maybe twelve in modernist black. The meal was many courses of deconstructed Thai food, but nothing one would recognize as Thai food. It was quite an adventure, delicious, and well presented. We had fun and a great meal.
Khun Kanchana, Khun Pensri, Nan, Patama, Viraphan, Philip, and I went to Nahm, a fancy Michelin Thai restaurant and had a delicious mean with the great company of old friends.
Salma and I wanted to try our hands at shortbread. Due to Covid, she was in Portland and I in San Jose; so we used FaceTime, I on my iPad and she on her iPhone.
I had picked a possibly too simple recipe; and it worked out fairly well. We made a simple, pie-like, flour and butter dough, and hand formed it into a brick to be sliced into individual cookies. To get the consistency for slicing, we put the bricks in the fridge overnight.
We came back the next morning at 10:30 and sliced the bricks into cookies and placed them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. My dough was a bit too dry so was crumbly and caused some crumbled cookies.
Ten minutes at 350f and we had cookies!
I plated mine, with the good ones on the bottom so we would eat the malformed ones first.
All in all, they tasted good; but I think i preferred the cornbread muffins.
I saw this recipe in the Washington Post, and after two days of heavy eggplant parmigiana I wanted something light, even springish. In the process, I learned how to segment grapefruit and oranges, easy peasy. As it was the main, I wanted to put it over something, but my go-to rice would not have been good. I considered soba, and then realized that angel hair pasta would be it. The recipe called for a bit of basil, which means basil plus cilantro to me.
The cooking took the acid out of the citrus, which was good. The dish was light and a bit sweet, and did not obscure the scallops at all. A definite repeat.
Using a sharp paring knife, trim the top and bottom off the grapefruit and the orange, then remove the white pith and the peel of each by standing the fruit on one of its cut ends and, following the shape of the fruit with your knife, cutting downward around the fruit.
Working over a bowl so the citrus segments fall into the bowl and you catch the juice, use the paring knife to remove each segment of the fruit from its membrane. Squeeze the remaining membrane over the bowl to extract more juice. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the citrus segments to a separate bowl; reserve the juice.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil until shimmering. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, until they soften slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Cook until the wine is reduced by about half, about 2 minutes. Add the reserved citrus juice and cook until the liquid in the pan has reduced slightly, 1 to 2 minutes more. Stir in the butter and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, then remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.
Pat the scallops all over with paper towels to ensure they are as dry as possible, then sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper.
In a large skillet over high heat, heat the remaining oil until shimmering. Working in batches if necessary, add the scallops and cook, without moving them, until caramelized and brown on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Gently flip, and cook on the other side until the scallops are only slightly translucent in the center, 2 to 3 minutes more.
While the scallops are cooking, add the citrus segments to the sauce, stirring gently so they don’t break up much; return the sauce to low heat until warmed through.
Evenly divide the scallops among 4 plates, pour about 1/3 cup of sauce on top, and sprinkle with the herbs. Serve warm.
I saw this recipe in the Washington Post, and it intrigued me for some reason. I had everything but the shredded coconut, so put it in my InstaCart order for Sunday afternoon, unpacked the order, and made the cake.
And the cut-away looked as good as the picture in the WaPo
The taste was not exciting, but a bit rich and a bit solid. I’ll make it again.
I had stashed the rice recipe, figuring I would try it some day. Katen got a new rice cooker, her first, and I decided to try it. I took a much cruder approach, just throwing everything in the rice cooker. The result was OK, maybe a bit too much cardamon and clove. It was too strong for Zita.
The salmon was steamed in the pan with mushrooms, scallions, ginger, and cilantro. Tasty.
Riz Aleister Crowley
Ingredients
– 1 cup brown basmati rice
– sea salt
– 1/4 cup sultanas
– 1/4 cup slivered almonds1
– 1/4 cup pistachio nuts
– powdered clove
– powdered cardamoms
– turmeric powder (enough to colour the rice to a clear golden tint)
– 2 tblsp. butter
Bring two cups of salted water to a bowl. Throw in in the rice, stirring regularly.
Test the rice after about ten minutes “by taking a grain, and pressing between finger and thumb. It must be easily crushed, but not sodden or sloppy. Test again, if not right, every two minutes.”
When ready, pour cold water into the saucepan.
Empty the rice into a colander, and rinse under cold tap.
Put colander on a rack above the flames, if you have a gas stove, and let it dry. Or, If your stove is electric, as mine is, the rice can be dried by placing large sheets of paper towel over and under the rice, soaking up the water. Preferably the rice should seem very loose, almost as if it it has not been cooked at all. When you’ve removed as much water as you can, remove the paper towel.
Place the rice back into the pot on a much lower temperature.
While stirring continuously add the butter, sultanas, almonds, pistachio nuts, a dash or two of cloves and a dash of cardamom.
Add enough turmeric that the rice, after stirring, is “uniform, a clear golden colour, with the green pistachio nuts making it a Poem of Spring.”
I had the great pleasure of baking popovers with Salma, my granddaughter age eleven, assisted by her Mom. They’re easy, so I will not bore anyone with details.
It took to days to eat the dozen of them I made. I should have thought to get whipping cream.
Zita is a lobster addict. I enjoy it when fresh; and frozen, as we get on the Left Coast, is OK, but not life changing.
I was out of it, and had made both rice and mashed potatoes. I stashed the former. Broccoli seemed to be our winter green veg.
So I made bialys, cream cheese, lox, tomatoes, and onions for Christmas Eve dinner. We knew we were supposed to go to a Chinese restaurant, but Covid. And the local was not really that good.
Lunardi’s had pretty good sliced lox, called smoked salmon on the Left Coast. And the bialys were Kossar’s, shipped in from New York.
Zita’s Advent Calendar was complete. I forget what movie we watched.
Joanie’s walnut crescent cookies were my favorite. So I made a batch. Then I Zoom baked a second batch with Salma, which was great fun. Later i made yet another batch to send to Carrie, Anna, and Suzie.
